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Boanerges de Souza Massa
|birth_place = Avaré, São Paulo, Brazil |disappeared_date = | disappeared_place = Formosa, Goiás, Brazil | nationality = Brazilian |alma_mater = University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo Law School |organization = Ação Libertadora Nacional, MOLIPO }} Boanerges de Souza Massa (born January 7, 1938 - disappeared June 21, 1972) was a Brazilian physician who joined the resistance against the military dictatorship. He was the field surgeon of the National Liberation Action ( , ALN) founded by Carlos Marighella. After the police liquidated Marighella, he went to Cuba to take guerilla courses and co-founded the People's Liberation Movement ( , MOLIPO). The army captured him in 1971 in Pindorama and he disappeared shortly thereafter. 25 years later, the Brazilian government officially acknowledged its responsibility. Biographical record Boanerges de Souza Massa was born on January 7, 1938 in Avaré, São Paulo, to Francisco de Souza Massa and Laura Alves Massa. He married Maria Lucia Sant'Anna Saadi Kerbeg in São Paulo on January 9, 1969. In the 1980s the authorities granted her a divorce because her husband had disappeared for a decade.Biography of Boanerges de Souza Massa by the Truth Commission of the State of São Paulo. In the 1990s the authorities granted Boanerges' brother Cyro Massa a 100,000 reais compensation because his brother had disappeared for two decades after being in government custody.Presidential Decree No. 2.318. Early life and education Boanerges de Souza Massa was born in a rural area and worked as teacher and accountant to pay for his studies. He was admitted to the Medicine School and the Law School of the University of São Paulo. He graduated from the former in December 1965 and the latter in June 1966. He interned at the University of São Paulo Faculty of Medicine Clinics Hospital."Where is Boanerges?" by Ulisses de Souza, Review of the Association of Medicine of São Paulo, No. 572, October 2006, Special Edition: Doctors' Day, pp. 6-11. He is the co-author of a published academic research article on leptospirosis.Review of Medicine, Vol. 47, No. 3 (1963), pp. 190-192 In July 1962, Boanerges was invited to speak to John F. Kennedy on the lawn of the White House as part of a delegation of the Alliance for Progress. A journalist reported: "Wagging his finger, the student from Avaré questioned the President of the United States on his interference in poor countries." In medical school he was designated as commencement speaker for the Class of 1965, but his speech was censored for being critical of the military dictatorship. Doctor of the ALN Over the years, Boanerges de Souza Massa gravitated towards the militant group Ação Libertadora Nacional (ALN). On May 8, 1969, the ALN robbed a bank and killed a policeman, but one of their members, Takao Amano, was wounded. It was Boanerges who gave him emergency medical care and extracted the bullet.A History of Terrorism in Brazil, Chapter 27, Group Terrorismo Nunca Mais. On June 4, 1969, the ALM conducted another bank robbery, leaving one soldier dead. Two bullets wounded Francisco Gomes da Silva, the brother of ALN leader Virgilio Gomes da Silva (codename Jonas in the Oscar-nominated movie Four Days in September about the kidnapping of US ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick). Boanerges, along with the rest of the ALN commando, hijacked a hospital to treat the wounded. This 4-hour operation was medically successful, but Boanerges was recognized by the hospital staff and forced into clandestinity."Polícia tem uma pista do assaltante baleado," O Estado de S. Paulo, Saturday June 7, 1969, p. 13. Over the course of 1969, the most actively sought-after opponents to the military dictatorship became known as the "Marighella 7", among which Boanerges. He escaped from Brazil thanks to false identity papers provided by Dominicans.Biography of Boanerges de Souza Massa by the Commission of Relatives of Dead and Disappeared. Traveling through Uruguay, Boanerges linked up in Argentina with other ALN operatives, and they hijacked an airplane to fly to Cuba where they took refuge."À procura do pai - um ex-guerrilheiro desaparecido," by Luiz Maklouf Carvalho, Jornal da Tarde, September 16, 1997, p. 6A. MOLIPO In Cuba, Boanerges de Souza Massa lived with other exiled Brazilians in a house provided by the Castro regime. They took guerilla classes: physical training in the morning, political in the afternoon. Their goal was to return to Brazil and liberate their country from the military dictatorship. To this end they formed a new Marxist revolutionary organization, the MOLIPO, abbreviation of Movimento de Libertação Popular (in English: People's Liberation Movement). Boanerges de Souza Massa was the first MOLIPO operative to be sent back to Brazil to establish a rural guerilla base in the Northeast region.The black book of terrorism in Brazil, Army Information Center, 1988, p. 605. But counter-insurgency forces were aware of his return.Confidential Note No. 850 , Ministry of Aeronautics, 1971. He was the first to be captured, in Pindorama, on December 21, 1971.The dictatorship in Tocantins , Center for Human Rights of Palmas, 2015, p. 22. According to the sociologist Renato Dias: The final outcome was a crushing defeat for the MOLIPO: at least 60% of its cadre died or disappeared at the hands of the military.Movimento de Libertação Popular (MOLIPO), by Felix Maier, Group Terrorismo Nunca Mais. One of the rare survivors was José Dirceu, who entered mainstream politics after Brazil's 1985 transition to democracy and became the chief-of-staff of left-leaning President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (commonly called Lula). Disappearance As for the fate of Boanerges himself, according to the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances: He was seen in prison by other political prisoners, but his arrest was never officially registered by the security organs of the military regime. As late as 1995, his name was not on the official list of dead and missing political activists.Dossier of dead and missing political activists since 1964, Institute for the Study of State Violence, 1995. A declassified Army document says that he was physically impaired to the point that his identification would be difficult.Operation Island, report contributed by the former Attorney General of the Republic of Brazil Claudio Fonteles to the National Truth Commission on January 21, 2013. His body was never found. Yet for the family there is no doubt: he was murdered in prison.The Book of Shadows, by Lucas Figueiredo, Rolling Stone Magazine (Brazilian Edition), Issue 10, July 2007. His brother, Cyro Massa, said: }}After a proof of his incarceration dated June 21, 1972 was produced, the Brazilian government officially acknowledged responsibility for his disappearance on September 5, 1997. Investigative journalist Taís Morais, based on her extensive interview with a member of the secret services codenamed Carioca, finally revealed in 2008 that Boanerges de Souza Massa had been killed and buried near the city of Formosa in the state of Goiás.Gone with the dawn of man, extract from the book "Without Traces," Taís Morais, 2008, Geração Editorial. On November 22, 2012, Victor Manoel Mariz, Public Prosecutor of the State of Tocantins, sued Lieutenant Colonel Lício Maciel for the unlawful arrest, torture and murder of Boanerges de Souza Massa."Public Prosecutor Sues Agent of the Dictatorship," by João Peres, Rede Brasil Atual, November 22, 2012. General sources * Boanerges de Souza Massa article at Portuguese Wikipedia. References Category:People from São Paulo (state) Category:1938 births Category:Brazilian physicians Category:Brazilian guerrillas Category:Year of death unknown Category:Forced disappearances in Brazil